Vote YES on the United to Amend referendum | Letter

EDITOR: I ask your readers to vote YES on the United to Amend referendum on the ballot in the city of Marshfield for the April 3 election.

The Supreme Court has given constitutional rights meant only for individuals to artificial entities such as corporations, unions and nonprofits, and has ruled that money spent to influence the political process cannot be limited. As a result, our government today serves powerful special interests, instead of the American people.

The primary example of this is the super PAC, a conduit that is used to funnel huge sums of money to support a political candidate, oftentimes without disclosing the source. This system of “dark money” politics results in politicians catering to the interests of wealthy donors over the majority of constituents.

The referendum on the ballot seeks to correct this by calling for a constitutional amendment stating that 1) only human beings are endowed with constitutional rights ─ not corporations, unions, nonprofits or other artificial entities, and 2) money is not speech, and therefore regulating political contributions and spending is not equivalent to limiting speech.

Nineteen states and 120 Wisconsin municipalities have already called for such a constitutional amendment. I hope Marshfield will join that group, and eventually our great state of Wisconsin.